Lignocellulose derived materials

Lignocellulosic materials are undoubtedly the leading ones in the roadmap to bioeconomy. Thus they are ubiquitous when managing biomasses and their valorisation could give a very wide range of platform molecules fundamental for the chemical industry.

The use of catalysts developed at ISTM in this field is oriented not only to cellulose deconstruction into platform molecules but also to the transformation of the main building blocks derived from it.
The possibility to finely tune the property of the catalyst by varying the support gives the opportunity to address selectivity to different products in cellulose deconstruction.

Research activity is moreover focused on the selective transformation of platform molecules. GVL can be converted to ethyl valerate (EV), which is suitable as a gasoline additive at levels of 10% and 20% by volume.The skills developed at ISTM in the design of polyfunctional catalytic systems allowed to set up a very efficient process for the direct synthesis of valeric esters in one pot starting from GVL and alcohols.

References:
[1] M. Mariani, F. Zaccheria, R. Psaro, N. Ravasio, “Some insight into the role of different copper species as acids in cellulose deconstruction”, Catal. Commun., 10.1016/j.catcom.2013.07.010.
[2] C. E. Chan-Thaw, M. Marelli, R. Psaro, N. Ravasio, F. Zaccheria, “New generation biofuels: γ-valerolactone into valeric esters in one pot”, RSC Advance, 2013, 3(5), 1302-1306.